Jane Eisner: ‘From Hell to Paradise’
[Jane Eisner is editor of the Jewish Daily Forward.]
It was 25 years ago, and I still remember the deep, sharp cold as we stood on the Glienicke Bridge that winter morning. The day before, journalists from around Europe were brought to the bridge that separated the outskirts of West Berlin from the East German town of Potsdam. Something important was to happen the next day, we were told. I quickly realized that the footwear I brought from London, where I was based as a correspondent for The Philadelphia Inquirer, was inadequate and after the press briefing ended, I bought a pair of warm, gray boots in Berlin.
My Shcharansky boots, I named them, and wore them with affection for years.
To a young reporter who had written about Jewish refuseniks and their struggle to leave the Soviet Union, this story bore the weight of history. On February 11, 1986, I stood on the bridge and did my job, chronicling the release of Anatoly Shcharansky as he strode from imprisonment to freedom in a dramatic prisoner exchange that shook the very foundations of the Cold War. But as a Jew, I also stood there on behalf of the many people who had championed his cause, and sought in their activism to reflect his remarkable courage and unwavering dedication....
Read entire article at Jewish Daily Forward
It was 25 years ago, and I still remember the deep, sharp cold as we stood on the Glienicke Bridge that winter morning. The day before, journalists from around Europe were brought to the bridge that separated the outskirts of West Berlin from the East German town of Potsdam. Something important was to happen the next day, we were told. I quickly realized that the footwear I brought from London, where I was based as a correspondent for The Philadelphia Inquirer, was inadequate and after the press briefing ended, I bought a pair of warm, gray boots in Berlin.
My Shcharansky boots, I named them, and wore them with affection for years.
To a young reporter who had written about Jewish refuseniks and their struggle to leave the Soviet Union, this story bore the weight of history. On February 11, 1986, I stood on the bridge and did my job, chronicling the release of Anatoly Shcharansky as he strode from imprisonment to freedom in a dramatic prisoner exchange that shook the very foundations of the Cold War. But as a Jew, I also stood there on behalf of the many people who had championed his cause, and sought in their activism to reflect his remarkable courage and unwavering dedication....